Islamic Cartoon Odyssey And The Media's Shame

Benjamin Franklin knew what he was talking about when he said this:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Well it only took a week of riots and a couple of dozen deaths for newspapers and media organizations to decide that freedom of speech is not worth the effort.

A roundup of press restrictions at The Belmont Club indicates that press guidelines are being developed in some countries to limit upsetting Islamic sensibilities. How a Canadian university's newspaper was pulled from the rack because it contained the cartoons. How the EU wants to set up a dialogue with the media to discuss balancing freedom of speech with not offending Islamic and other religions.

What total and utter BS. You cannot have freedom of speech and worry about not upsetting people. All this proves is Muslim lunatics can force a nation to do its bidding by burning down its embassy. In the old days this would be considered an act of war and the offended country would sail its navy into the area and shell its attackers until they came to their senses. I believe huge chunks of Lebanon can be reached by the 16-inch guns on battleship USS New Jersey so I vote for bringing her out of retirement and sending her off to the Med.

Such actions by governments and other institutions simply teaches the terrorists and their supporters that the West is weak willed. If you want Spanish troops out of Iraq and a terrorist friendly government elected to power in Madrid, kill a couple hundred Spaniards and you will get your wish. If you wish to inflame Islamic public opinion incite them to riot over incorrect stories about Korans being flushed down a toilet. If you want to slowly convert the world to Muslim ideals then riot, killing a few fellow Muslims in the process, claim to be mortally offended and the world will bow to your demands.

What is the next liberty the West will be willing to give up chasing the lost hope of appeasing Muslim lunatics? Religion. Perhaps riots will break out decrying the holidays of Easter and Rosh Hashana. Maybe women's rights will fall to the wayside after a million Muslims in Iran scream that all women need to cover themselves from head to toe.

The first step on a very slippery slope has been taken. Let's hope our shoes have enough traction to stop the slide.